Effects of Experimental Greenhouse Warming on Phytoplankton and Zooplankton Communities in Fishless Alpine Ponds
Reads0
Chats0
TLDR
The authors found that moderate warming can destabilize plankton dynamics, thereby potentially reducing the reliability of water quality and food resources for higher trophic levels (e.g., planktivorous fish) in shallow coldwater ecosystems.Abstract:
The impacts of global warming on aquatic ecosystems are expected to be most pronounced at higher trophic levels in cold-water environments. Therefore, we hypothesized that warming of fishless alpine ponds would suppress large-bodied consumers (e.g., cladocerans, copepods) and stimulate fast-growing microorganisms (e.g., phytoflagellates, rotifers), thereby altering the community composition and total abundance of zooplankton and phytoplankton. This hypothesis was tested using three blocks of four experimental mesocosms (1000-liter capacity) that were located next to alpine ponds in Banff National Park, Canada. Each block received unfiltered pond water and sediment from a pond following ice out in June 2000. A warming treatment (control vs. 3.68C warmed) was achieved by controlling the ventilation of greenhouse canopies that were suspended over each of the mesocosms. By the end of our 50-d experiment, warming significantly suppressed total zooplankton biomass because large cladocerans (Daphnia pulex) declined while rotifer (Keratella cochlearis, Conochilus unicornis ) abundance increased during the second half of the experiment. In contrast, warming did not affect total phytoplankton biomass but significantly altered community composition by favoring phytoflagellates ( Mallomonas, Synura, Trachelomonas ) over larger filamentous green algae (Mougeotia, Phymatodocis ). Warming did not significantly increase dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations. Therefore, warmer growing conditions and reduced grazer biomass best explained the increased abundance of more edible, fast-growing phytoflagellates in the warmed mesocosms. Our findings support the hypothesis that moderate warming can destabilize plankton dynamics, thereby potentially reducing the reliability of water quality and food resources for higher trophic levels (e.g., planktivorous fish) in shallow cold-water ecosystems.read more
Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
Lakes as sentinels of climate change
Rita Adrian,Catherine M. O'Reilly,Horacio E. Zagarese,Stephen B. Baines,Dag O. Hessen,Wendel Keller,David M. Livingstone,Ruben Sommaruga,Dietmar Straile,Ellen Van Donk,Gesa A. Weyhenmeyer,Monika Winder +11 more
TL;DR: This work has identified the key response variables within a lake that act as indicators of the effects of climate change on both the lake and the catchment, which reflect a wide range of physical, chemical, and biological responses to climate.
Journal ArticleDOI
Trait-Based Community Ecology of Phytoplankton
TL;DR: The essential components of trait-based approaches to phytoplankton ecology are summarized and mathematical techniques for integrating traits into measures of growth and fitness and predicting how community structure varies along environmental gradients are described.
Journal ArticleDOI
Climate change and freshwater ecosystems: impacts across multiple levels of organization
TL;DR: It is proposed that an understanding of the connections between these different levels of organization can help to develop a more coherent theoretical framework based on metabolic scaling, foraging theory and ecological stoichiometry, to predict the ecological consequences of climate change.
Journal ArticleDOI
Phytoplankton response to a changing climate
Monika Winder,Ulrich Sommer +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors review mechanistic links between climate alterations and factors limiting primary production, and highlight studies where climate change has had a clear impact on phytoplankton processes.
Journal ArticleDOI
Multiple anthropogenic stressors cause ecological surprises in boreal lakes
Michael R. Christensen,Mark D. Graham,Rolf D. Vinebrooke,David L. Findlay,Michael J. Paterson,Michael A. Turner +5 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors corroborate findings from an in situ mesocosm experiment with evidence from a whole-ecosystem manipulation to demonstrate for the first time that interactions between climate and acidification determine their cumulative impact on the food-web structure of coldwater lakes.
References
More filters
Book
Experimental Design and Data Analysis for Biologists
Gerry P. Quinn,Michael J. Keough +1 more
TL;DR: An essential textbook for any student or researcher in biology needing to design experiments, sample programs or analyse the resulting data is as discussed by the authors, covering both classical and Bayesian philosophies, before advancing to the analysis of linear and generalized linear models Topics covered include linear and logistic regression, simple and complex ANOVA models (for factorial, nested, block, split-plot and repeated measures and covariance designs), and log-linear models Multivariate techniques, including classification and ordination, are then introduced.
Book
The ecology of freshwater phytoplankton
TL;DR: The phytoplankton-like structure of lakes and rivers has an important role in determining the food web structure of animals and the environment and its role in promoting growth and survival in animals and humans.
Book
Design and Analysis of Ecological Experiments
TL;DR: This paper presents a meta-analysis of the results of independent Experiments combining the Results of Independent Experiments and ANCOVA to derive nonparametric and Randomization approaches to ANOVA.